NEWS
Anti-war group talks with Wiley
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by Pedro Oliveira Jr.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
University of Wisconsin Chancellor John Wiley and members of the Campus Antiwar Network discussed Monday the possibility of having a campuswide referendum to decide whether Halliburton should be included in future graduate recruiting fairs.
The meeting with the chancellor comes in light of a recent demonstration in which nearly 200 students protested the inclusion of Halliburton in a College of Engineering recruiting fair last month, accusing the company of making billions of dollars off the Iraq war.
The group requested a campuswide referendum in hopes of prohibiting the company from visiting campus with the intent to recruit UW graduates.
But Wiley said UW, as a state agency, does not take into account officials' positions on political or social issues, and therefore cannot ban Halliburton from university grounds.
"We do not have a foreign policy, we don't have political affiliation, we don't have a preference … for capitalism over socialism, or any other economic model; we don't have a view on which is the best novel ever written," Wiley said, according to a recording of the meeting provided by CAN. "The university simply doesn't have positions on most things that aren't right in our main line of mission, which are education and research."
The chancellor said organizations like Halliburton have a constitutional right to meet with students and try to recruit them, and a referendum on whether to deny a company those rights has no force of law or weight, and is "an immoral thing to do."
"If there's one student on campus who would like the right of free association with recruiters from Halliburton and would like the opportunity to interview for a job with Halliburton, we cannot deny that student that right," Wiley added.
UW junior and CAN member Rob Lewis, who was present at the meeting, said CAN will still attempt a campuswide referendum in the future.
"We're going to put it off until spring because we missed the cutoff [for a referendum] by a week," Lewis said.
According to Lewis, the chancellor commended CAN's activism and said he would look at the referendum's wording, once the organization has it ready.
"He supported our actions, but the university has to be neutral," Lewis said.
UW senior Zach Heise, who was also at the meeting, said in an e-mail that CAN will persist in its efforts to protest Halliburton's presence on campus, and will make another appearance at a company's informational session today.
"The Campus Anti-War Network is planning to be there in force, as well with a small group, ‘infiltrating' to ask Halliburton the hard questions, and to make sure the students that are there have all the facts," Heise wrote in the e-mail.
Halliburton will hold its informational recruiting session at 1025 Engineering Hall at 6 p.m., according to Heise.
Anonymous (October 9, 2007 @ 5:59am):
A couple of years, Halliburton completely spun off its former subsidiary KBR, which still does business in Iraq. The current Halliburton has nothing to do with Iraq. It's sad that CAN can't figure that out.
Anonymous (October 9, 2007 @ 9:32am):
Do they realize that this referendum is not in accordance with ASM law as well as what the federal courts have said?
Anonymous (October 9, 2007 @ 2:21pm):
They aren't Anti-war(tm), they are just on the other side.
Anonymous (October 9, 2007 @ 4:56pm):
"They aren't Anti-war(tm), they are just on the other side."
Yeah, we are on the other side. That is, the same side as a large and growing majority of Americans. Good luck trying ALL of us for treason.
Anonymous (October 9, 2007 @ 9:15pm):
Funny isn't it that Halliburton is the only company singled out as profiting off this war. One can think of a whole lot of others that probably also recruit on campus. One is led to believe therefore that such exclusion of Halliburton from Campus recruiting has more to do with their ties to the current anti-liberal (and therefore in the eyes of CAN, an "evil" entity that must be destroyed) administration than it does ties to the Iraqi war.
Below is a list of other companies who are making millions off the war. Funny CAN has not targeted them as well. Oh wait, none of them had the current Vice President sitting on their board of CEO's did they???
Boeing
AM/General Motors
Apple Computer (goodbye Ipods)
Bell Helicopter/Textron
Bushnell
Dupont
General Dyanamics
Honeywell International
John Deere
Lockheed Martin
Nothrop Grumman
Panasonic
Raytheon
These are just a few of the Companies that do business with the US military and thus "profit" off the war.
Let us also not forget the University's own ties to military research which can be found by using any search engine or browser. Thus it would seem their OWN UNIVERSITY also profits from this war as well. What now CAN, ban the University of Wisconsin from doing business with itself???
Anonymous (October 10, 2007 @ 12:32am):
Well, Halliburton is much more recognizeable, and the connections are easier for the media and the public to grasp. Can you imagine trying to message a protest against Bushnell or Textron?
Anonymous (October 13, 2007 @ 1:05pm):
I wonder if they wore suits/ties to the meeting or sweats and the dreads...
Agreed if you're protest companies, protest them ALL. But like most kids here who just want a good paying job after college... WE DONT CARE about our protests.
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